The cold winter months ahead mean more reading.....

[nikkinaz]

Hi Everyone

Well now that the :braai: are over and the summer is almost gone :leaf: - time to curl up on the sofa :engel: and get buried in a book.

:read: :read: :read:

So what is everyone reading at the moment - what books have you got planned for the hibernating months ?


I have just finished a Mary Higgins Clark book - No Place Like Home. Although not one of her best books, I rather enjoyed this one ! Still exciting psychologically, and a little far fetched - but on the whole still a good thriller!


Synopsis
Growing up under an assumed identity after accidentally shooting her mother and escaping her abusive father, Liza Barton, still fearful that her past will reclaim her, is shocked when her husband inadvertently buys her childhood home.

I have now started The Laments by George Hagen and this promises to be a good novel

A novel which is, like George HagenÂ’s The Laments, about a continent-hopping family might seem like yesterdayÂ’s news when an international upbringing now seems almost de rigueur amongst writers. Yet this is no self-aggrandising romp round the world. Howard LamentÂ’s grand plans for a better life and career lead his family from colonial Rhodesia to a bigoted, hypocritical 1970s New Jersey, via BahrainÂ’s blinkered ex-pat community and a violent small town in England.

The novel spans the eighteen years from WillÂ’s birth and the secret of his adoption by the Laments to his graduation from high school. The first years in Africa provide a solid foundation to the story. It is when Will is a little older, and the family have left the obviously unjust colony that HagenÂ’s skill at peppering the story with culture shocks and mischievous details really enlivens the LamentsÂ’ travels and WillÂ’s friendships and loves.

Luckily the reader is kept chuckling, because Hagen takes us unflinchingly into the depression of HowardÂ’s spectacularly failed career, his wife JuliaÂ’s loneliness and the reality of family poverty. Tragedy never turns to bitterness though, and the charactersÂ’ final, tempered hopefulness is a well-earned haven for this long-adrift family.

[Bushbaby]

I have to admit to being very bad on the book front of late - the last one I read was the latest Harry Potter book and nothing but magazines since then. Finances are spare at the moment and I am in dispute with my library over a Linguaphone language (they claim I lost a tape, I KNOW it came to me short a tape) course so books will remain out of reach for a while longer.

[Icecub]

I bookmarked this yesterday.....going to order soon from Amazon in bulk style to keep me outta trouble.... :crylol: :crylol: :crylol:


Persepolis: The Story of an Iranian Childhood
Marjane Satrapi


Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, it follows the young Satrapi, the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.
The main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story shows how young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout she remains a hugely likeable young woman.

Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN...71-3054022

[Ade]

I recently read, and enjoyed, the Bookseller of Kabul
It certainly opens your eyes to a different way of living!

[Icecub]

I recently read, and enjoyed, the Bookseller of Kabul
I certainly opens your eyes to a different way of living!

yes i agree...fab book.... :daisy: